The day after international women's day

Today, March 10 of 2020, the day after international women's day there was an attack on a mother and her daughter in broad daylight by a man. This was in my route to school, it was public, right by the bus stop I walk by every day. The public intervened and the man is in custody. I ran this morning with a friend 2 miles out and back, there was a man on a motor cycle who did a U-turn right by us as we were running on the sidewalk, he was only turning to wait for someone at the house we were running by.

I cannot tell you how enraged I am that these things are happening and becoming more popular. Especially since the attacks are only on women and children and are becoming more frequent.

Today was the first day on my walk home that I thought what do I currently have in my backpack that I could use as a weapon if I needed to? The answer, my half full glass water bottle, and my two epi pens. I decided that the water bottle would do, filled it up all the way so it carried the most weight if I were to need to use it and carried it in my dominant hand the entire 20 minute walk home, observing every car that went by to make sure it wasn't one that doubled back and not just 'glancing' behind my back but full on turning around to be completely aware of my surroundings.

I'M PISSED. ESPECIALLY THE DAY AFTER INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY.

Men, please help your female friends during these times, always and forever, the world is completely different from our point of view.

Big differences

I am noticing that my Spanish is getting A LOT better. I no longer have to really focus on the words people say to understand them clearly. I am also noticing that English sounds weird. If I’m walking down the street alone and I hear English it’s an immediate ‘WAIT, that doesn’t sound right...’ which is such a funny thing when your mother language becomes uncommon to your own brain. Big mind blown. But I am also seeing a ton of English print on shirts and they’re hilarious! Most of them have correct grammar and syntax - for example my house sister doesn’t really speak English, she knows some words but hasn’t had an interest to fully learn the language yet. She has a shirt that says something along the lines of ‘why by racist, or homophobic (and a bunch of other things I can’tremember) but she was wearing it at dinner next to our ‘abuelo’ (grandfather) who is extremely homophobic. I’m not sure if it was a retaliation towards him, or if she knew what the shirt said in it’s entirety but I do know she is one of my favorite people.

Today we are traveling to the Toucan Rescue Ranch in the mountains. I’m excited to see my old roommate (she spent a month living with us to learn Spanish and moved up to the mountains for an internship at the rescue. I am questioning why when our program told us to wear pants and closed toe shoes that there are some wearing Sandler’s and shorts. I’m not sure if some of these people have been on a farm or near animals like this before... could be interesting ;) 

I have decided and signed up to run a half marathon on the 3rd of May (hooray borgess marathon!) but ive Gad a bit o f an upset stomach lately and I’m a little worried about my longer runs and fueling when it mes to that. We will see how it goes. Today I have to do 3 miles and tomorrow 4 because I’m hanging out with my tico family Saturday. 

I’ve really been enjoying the Fasch it’s so much fun to play and I think I really enjoy playing baroque and baroque French pieces And super modern pieces. There is no in between. I’ve been trying to practice a lot more lately but it’s so hot during the day it’s more of a workout with me being drenched in sweat. I do practice after dinner most nights but I try to stop around 8/9. 

What to play?

Michael and I played the Mozart Sonata for bassoon and cello (or Euphonium - el bombardino) last year on my recital and we were joking that for his recital this year we would play the same thing but switch parts so we would play it two years in a row... but in reality it would be three due to Kathy's recital where I played the lower part LOL!

In all reality things are going very well here. We just finished our second module, celebrated by white water rafting for 5 hours and trashing our muscles while having a blast, and began our third module. I am taking Latin American Civilization and Culture. I've only had one class but it's amazing so far! We had great conversations about 'what is culture.' 

I'm coming to a point in my life where I'm going to have to make some big decisions soon... but I can wait at least until December, to apply to grad school. I want in the worst way to live and play bassoon in Spain for the rest of my life, but I have to get into school there first. While I'm in Costa Rica I'm preparing and studying with Isabel. She recently brought to me the Fasch Sonate in C major, and I LOVE IT! She also showed me a technical studies book by her old professor at the University of Kansas, Alan Hawkins. It's quite a handy book and really plays tricks on your finger brains by presenting an etude in C major, but could also be played in C# major, Cb Major, G Major and Gb Major. On the cover it's priced at $7.50, I looked it up to possibly purchase from TrevCo (fantastic company by the late Eric Varner) it was $35 :( 

I'm trying to practice more while I'm here to become a bassoon titan... one day

EM